Sony likely to unveil Playstation 4 this month

The company is hosting its first major Playstation meeting in two years on Feb 20, sparking online speculation that it is preparing to unveil the successor to its 70m-selling PS3 games console.

The last time Sony held a Playstation event, in Jan 2011, it presented a protoype of its handheld Vita console. Before that, it convened a gathering in 2005 two months after it first demonstrated the PS3 concept. A meeting in 1999 revealed designs for the PS2.

It has been more than six years since Sony launched the PS3, a longer gap than between it and its PS2 predecessor, adding to the anticipation that it will soon disclose its next gaming concept.

Since Sony’s last home console launch, the games market has been transformed by the boom in smartphones and tablet computers that have wooed players with free or cheap games.

Sony and other console makers Nintendo and Microsoft now have to contend with competition from hand-held devices made by Apple, Samsung Electronics and others.

Nintendo on Wednesday cut its sales target for the Wii U, successor to its 100m-selling Wii, to 4m machines by the end of March from its launch in November, compared with an earlier forecast for 5.5m.